Many current vehicles employ resilient clips to secure various components to an automobile vehicle body. One such application concerns instrument panels that mount to the interior of the vehicle. Such panels provide one or more instruments together with instrument wiring harnesses or system connections.
During assembly of the vehicle, it is a conventional procedure to install the entire panel assembly onto the interior of the vehicle in a single operation. In other words, the panel assembly is passed through either the windshield or backlight opening of the vehicle body on the assembly line and then the panel assembly is secured by line operators to the interior of the vehicle.
In order to accomplish this assembly task, the panel assembly is commonly equipped with two or more fasteners located around the periphery of the panel assembly, as well as at predetermined locations around the interior area of the panel, that are adapted to penetrate through corresponding apertures located in the reinforcing sheet metal members of the vehicle interior. It is the responsibility of the line operators to properly orient the panel assembly adjacent the interior of the vehicle and press the fasteners into the various mounting holes in the reinforcing sheet metal members to secure the panel assembly to the interior of the vehicle.
For panels such as instrument panels, the components and therefore the structure of the panel can have significant weight. In addition, common instrument panels provide a layer of foam or other sound/vibration damping material on a back side (opposite to a passenger facing side) of the panel. When conventional resilient clips are used, the line operator must align each resilient clip with a corresponding mounting aperture and press on the panel with one hand adjacent the resilient clip with sufficient force to compress the layer of foam while maintaining resilient clip alignment with the mounting aperture. With a second hand the line operator must simultaneously hold and operate a fastener tool to insert a screw to complete the installation. This procedure is time consuming and can often require several attempts and/or several operators.